This application represents the competitive renewal for support of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Neuroscience at the University of Vermont (UVM). Specific aims of this proposal are: Specific Aim 1: Further develop the research and intellectual infrastructure of the University-wide Center for Neuroscience Excellence at UVM. Goals of this aim include 1) to continue a mentoring program for junior neuroscience faculty, 2) to maintain an imaging/physiology Core and a cellular/molecular Core to support the research projects of the neuroscience community, 3) to support a University-wide Neuroscience Seminar Series and Annual Retreat, and 4) to facilitate dialogue between basic and clinical scientists that promotes development of collaborative and translational research. Specific Aim 2: Support the research development of a Core group of junior faculty who will be future leaders in the Center for Neuroscience Excellence. The faculty and their project titles are 1) Dr. Alan Howe: Spatial Regulation of Protein Kinase A Signaling During Growth Cone Guidance, 2) Dr. Miguel Martin-Caraballo: Developmental regulation of GluR2 AMPA receptor subunit expression, 3) Dr. Jeffrey Spees: Adult Bone Marrow Stem Cells For CMS Repair, and 4) Dr. Umadevi Wesley: Role of Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV (DPPIV) in Peripheral Neurogenesis and Neuroblastomas. UVM has established investigators in molecular/developmental, cellular/systems and clinical/behavioral neuroscience. The current COBRE in Neuroscience provided a highly successful mechanism to significantly expand research strength in these existing areas, to integrate basic with clinical neuroscience, to create a long term mentoring framework for junior faculty and to develop a new university-wide Neuroscience Graduate Program. A goal of the next grant cycle is to build upon our success and develop a cohesive group of talented junior and senior investigators focused on neuronal development and differentiation that will form the Core for future applications directed at strategies to prevent and treat neurologic disease. UVM is the only doctoral degree granting institution in a state with limited resources due to its tax base of fewer than 625,000 people. The current COBRE funding has been instrumental in developing an excellent research infrastructure for neuroscience that has allowed the UVM neuroscience community to compete successfully for both significant new institutional funds and extramural support. Continued support of the Neuroscience COBRE by the National Center for Research Resources over the next funding cycle will ensure a return on investment that will benefit the University, the State of Vermont, the national research enterprise, and the patients looking to science for answers and hope. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]